The civilian board overseeing Sarnia’s police will be keeping a close eye on overtime costs this year after officers worked almost 14,000 extra hours in 2021.
More than 6,500 overtime hours were dedicated to major crimes – Sarnia police were involved in five homicide investigations last year – and drug-related investigations, according to a report on the preliminary results from the 2021 budget. Approximately 6,000 hours of overtime also came from manpower shortages caused by long-term leaves, subsequent return-to-work plans, COVID-related absences, and other illnesses, the report said.
The finally tally for officer overtime was 13,959 hours, causing a negative variance of $398,935 in the budget.
Paul Wiersma, a board member, estimated based on a typical work week and vacation time that figure equates to about 7.5 extra officers.
“At what point do we recommend that we increase the complement? Or do we just chalk this up to a completely unusual year?” he asked Norm Hansen, Sarnia’s police chief, during a recent meeting.
Hansen responded they could “always” use more officers.
“However, ’21 was a unique year,” he said. “We had four homicides in 17 days to start the year off.”
fourpeople, including two seniors in their homes, were found dead in January 2021. Overall there have been 20 murder charges laid in Sarnia-Lambton in less than two years.
Hansen explained some of the overtime simply comes from holding major crime scenes, which requires two officers and can take a couple of days to a full week depending on the case.
“So two officers at – call it four days – just that part of the investigation is just shy of $15,000. So when you have 10 crime scenes in a year, there’s $150,000,” he said.
That estimate doesn’t include detectives or safety squads being called out to crime scenes while also maintaining a minimum number of officers regularly patrolling city roads, Hansen said.
“It adds up very quickly,” he said.
The virus also played a factor.
“We had a whole platoon have to go home for a week because they were exposed to COVID. We had another platoon exposed to COVID in a cellblock and have to go home,” Hansen said. “We have no control over that.”
But the chief, who recently announced he’ll be retiring soon, reiterated 2021 was a unique year.
“Neither one of us have seen four homicides in one month,” he said while sitting next to Owen Lockhart, Sarnia’s deputy chief, in a boardroom at headquarters. “Yes, we could always use more officers… (but) ’21 would be a – especially with COVID as well – it would probably be a bad year to gauge the need.”
Wiersma pointed out the board recently increased the complement by four officers.
“But I personally would be supportive of looking at that again in the future,” he said.
Mayor Mike Bradley, who was re-elected as chairperson during the meeting, said they’ll be red-flagging overtime for budget discussions.
“Just so you’re aware of our concerns,” he said.
Hansen also pointed out it’s not a unique issue to Sarnia and there is government funding available to help pay for overtime amid the pandemic, although other forces have found it’s not enough to cover the shortfall.
“So we’re not alone at all,” he said. “It’s not an excuse – I don’t want to be over budget – but it’s just the way that the year went.”